Helix Realty Inc - Soho

Thanks for this email. I was unaware that you were awaiting a response from me after the building owner responded to my complaint. This issue is not resolved. The building management continues to cause concern at multiple levels. If the temperatures are moderate, the interim system that they are using for climate control is effective, although very loud and unsightly. When the temperatures rise, we are unable to use some parts of our suite To be clear, the issues are not resolved, a lot of the assertions made in the response are not true, and I don’t know that the Revdex.com can be of any additional help I appreciate your efforts ***
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Dear Revdex.com,We purchased this building one and one half years ago and it was in very poor shape. The complaining tenant had already been there for at least two years..They expected us to correct many conditions that they had accepted when they rented the space from the prior owner....

It was always dirty and their “As Is’ space had stained carpet and walls. the heating and cooling was spotty and unreliable, we later learned. a We were legally obliged to keep the hvac contract put in place by the prior owner. Last summer the building was very comfortable and in January the heat broke down. We had it fixed in 24 hours. The furnace continued to act up three times but we responded immediately and never had even 4 hours without heat. We spend over $10,000. trying to keep the system running and had electric bills of over $14,000. a month due to its poor performance and tenant demand.This tenant uses their offices in the evenings and their lease does not even provide for service after 6 pm, which we supply anyway. The office manager of the complaining tenant called when it was too cold for her and too hot for her. In fact, she has called dozens of times for any reason you can imagine and has sent us 172 emails and called numerous times in 18 months regarding temperature, other tenants, spots on their carpets that have been there for years, noise, toilet paper running out, doors open, etc., etc.. All of them answered and all service calls attended to. I have saved many of them.This summer, half of the buildings air completely broke down due to THE UTILITY COMPANY OWNED TRANSFORMER. Part of this tenants space is in that half. They have approximately 2/3rds of one floor. There are four floors plus a basement in this building.We have installed portable, large a/c units which this tenant only does not keep on. We pay all utilities and it is not at their expense. Every time we come to monitor temperature we get a reading of 70 to 74 unless a/units are off.To date, we have spent over $59,000. on electrical work with [redacted] and additional money with [redacted] prior to that. Our tally to date for equipment is over $70,000. Yet to be determined is the amount for labor, which includes overtime in the evenings. The temporary portable units have cost us around $13,000 plus installation. This is a B class office building with rents from $10.00 a square foot to $12.00 a square foot annually-full service.Most of the new system is already installed and working. We have a difficult time getting in to their space as they have closed door sessions in the day and some evenings. We will be completely finished within 1o days if permitted in their space. All of the electric is installed in their space and we just have to place the PTAC units.I do not believe the office manager reports the entire story to her superiors as I have seen in the past 18 months when meeting with the owners.I have kept the building abreast of all developments and we have worked well with all others.In conclusion, we are reputable owner operators. Our only poor review from thousands of tenants are from those we had to evict of collect from. We had a 5 star year from Yelp in 2016 and great Google reviews and we do not even solicit reviews at all. We have been in business for over 25 years.We value our tenants and our business.Kindly let me know if I can provide you with any further information.Sincerely, [redacted]Helix Realty, VP

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/05) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted]
Contact Phone: XXX XXX XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@gmail.com
Mr. [redacted] was seemingly frank about his poor credit and the fact that he had been rejected by another landlord. After explaining his...

situation, I told him that for an extra security deposit we could rent to him after our usual verification process, in keeping with our written policy in his lease application, which he signed. . Unfortunately, after running his credit and criminal background, additional facts came to light, like a tax lien and an undisclosed action in another state under "criminal" on the report and more. We called him and texted him on the cell number HE wrote on his application. That is how we contact applicants before leases are approved and in place.
We called and texted several times as indicated in our system.
Apparently, he provided us with the wrong cell phone number (as he admitted). The voice mail we received when calling did not indicate the phone owner and we logically assumed he had provided his actual number. Our policy is that we always return security deposits immediately when turning down applicants and we call them within 24 hours (excluding weekends) to inform them of their status.
We not only have his deposit refund but we also are giving him our "non-refundable" app. fee back which he was offered immediately on the day he came in but refused to take at that time. (We still have his total of $200.00 which he has said he would pick up twice)
Our goal is to rent our apartments and we sometimes work with people who have had financial issues however we cannot be subordinate to tax liens and we do not take people with criminal records,for which we would have needed clarification.
I sympathise and understand his frustration but he has been recently evicted for non payment of over 2000.00rent (according to his credit report) and is having a difficult time finding an apartment.
Respectfully submitted, [redacted]